Similar to pretests, pilot tests are used to evaluate how a sample of people from the survey population respond to the questionnaire. For a pilot test, surveyors typically contact a large number of people so that potential differences within and across groups in the population can be analyzed. In addition, pilot tests for many surveys test the full implementation procedures (e.g., contact letters, incentives, callbacks, etc.). Pilot tests are usually conducted well in advance of when the survey will be fielded so that more substantial changes to the questionnaire or procedures can be made. Pilot tests are particularly helpful when surveyors are testing new questions or making substantial changes to a questionnaire, testing new procedures or different ways of implementing the survey, and for large-scale surveys, such as the U.S. Census.

Design and pre-test questionnaires: Designing the questionnaire carefully and then pre-testing it before fielding it to your entire sample is crucial to getting data that are valid and reliable. For example, careful questionnaire design and pre-testing can help reduce the chance that respondents may interpret the meaning of questions differently. Future posts in this series will tackle these important steps in much greater detail.

Unlike many sites, Valued Opinions doesn’t offer you the chance to take cash rewards, at the moment limiting users to retail vouchers and gift cards. Electronic vouchers are usually with you within 24 hours but gift cards can take four to six weeks to arrive in the post. Once $10 has been earned, you can claim Amazon vouchers, Macy’s gift cards and Visa promo codes, among many other reward options dependant on your location. Surveys are said to be varied, but the gift card options less so, so check they are for stores you’ll want to shop in before you tot up lots of points.
Questions with ordinal response categories – those with an underlying order (e.g., excellent, good, only fair, poor OR very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, very unfavorable) – are generally not randomized because the order of the categories conveys important information to help respondents answer the question. Generally, these types of scales should be presented in order so respondents can easily place their responses along the continuum, but the order can be reversed for some respondents. For example, in one of the Pew Research Center’s questions about abortion, half of the sample is asked whether abortion should be “legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, illegal in all cases” while the other half of the sample is asked the same question with the response categories read in reverse order, starting with “illegal in all cases.” Again, reversing the order does not eliminate the recency effect but distributes it randomly across the population.

What It Is: Companies like Google and Yahoo! give you information to search for, and you tell them how closely their results matched what you were looking for. Does a search for Lady Antebellum turn up sites about the music group or links to pre–Civil War period information? If you are Latina, for example, you might be asked to search the way a Spanish speaker might perform a search in English. Jobs are usually between 10 to 25 hours a week.

My favorite survey maker is by far Survey Anyplace (https://surveyanyplace.com/). It allows you to incorporate your logo, colors and other brand elements as well as images, video, and animations into your surveys – making them a fun experience instead of just another form you need to fill out on the internet. It also adapts to every device and environment including iOS, Android, phone, tablet, your native app, a tab on your Facebook page, your web app, etc. And it’s super easy to gather your data to analyze! I definitely recommend it for those looking for fun survey experiences that will keep their audience engaged!
The free site screens you when you sign up, asking a range of questions so you can be sent the surveys which will be suitable for you. You can also join up with a social media account like Facebook or LinkedIn instead of using your email address. Filling out surveys for money with Opinion Outpost will first give you Opinion Points – with 10 points worth $1. Most surveys will take between 10 and 30 minutes and are worth anything from $1 to $5. Typical survey time is around 15 minutes, and participants are also entered into quarterly prize draws, touted to be for $10,000! However some people think their surveys don’t come around often enough, and completing some surveys will enter you into prize draws rather than paying out cash.
“I participated in an in-home product trial study. A coffee machine company sent me one of the coffee makers along with about 200 coffee pods. I received $7 for completing 3 short surveys. Plus, after the study, the company said I could keep the coffee maker. So, I got like 4 mos of coffee for everyone in my household, a free coffee maker and $7!” - David W.